The energy transition advances, in the Valencian Community, at two speeds: in cities, especially in those with more than 20,000 inhabitants, there is a greater commitment to encourage solar panels, self-consumption facilities or recharging points for electric vehicles; in the villages, especially in those with less than 5,000 inhabitants, they are going at a different pace, especially due to the "lack of investments and advice".
The territorial inequality of public services, which particularly harms rural areas, can also be seen in the energy transition. This is clear from a survey promoted by the Ministry of Ecological Transition made to Valencian municipalities, made public three days after the Valencian Government approved the decree to speed up the implementation of renewable energies.
52.7% of municipalities have not yet developed a taxation to promote the installation of solar panels on roofs
Let's go to the report data. 52.7% of Valencian municipalities have not yet developed a taxation to promote the installation of solar panels on the roofs of homes or companies.
Among those that have done so, the incentives and tax credits introduced in the IBI (for properties that incorporate photovoltaic installations), in the circulation tax (IVTM) for electric vehicles and in the ICIO (Tax on Constructions, Installations and Works) for constructions, installations or works in which renewable energy self-consumption systems are incorporated predominate.
Installation of solar panels
In terms of taxation, the gap between large and small municipalities is already appreciated: 86% of those with more than 20,000 inhabitants subsidize the plates, compared to 62% of those with between 5,000 and 20,000 inhabitants. Those that least encourage them are municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants: just 36%. The figure drops even more if we focus on those at risk of depopulation, of which only 25% apply them.
There are also outstanding duties regarding publicly accessible electric charging points: only 27.9% have a sufficient network; 12.7 per cent have, but not enough to meet demand; and 59.4% do not have (although 21.6% have already started the procedures). Again, the municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants are those with the greatest implantation (50%).
The survey also shows how the city-town gap is seen in the electric vehicles that are in the municipal fleet: they only have 37% and when we look at the size of municipalities, 74% of those that have them are those with a population of more than 20,000 inhabitants.
On the other hand, almost half of the Valencian municipalities have launched some self-consumption facility in a municipal building in the last 3 years. 69% have more than 20,000 inhabitants; 44.4 per cent, from 5,000 to 20,000; and 46.4 per cent, less than 5,000.
Lack of investment capacity
The main reason pointed out by local entities as a limiting element to the introduction of self-consumption facilities has been the lack of investment capacity (indicated by 62% of the municipalities that do not have them), followed at a great distance by the lack of information.
The lack of technical, economic and legal viability (municipal planning) is not, in general, a relevant limiting factor.
Electric bike
This trend, the gap between city and town, is repeated in other parameters such as the degree of implementation of energy efficiency measures, percentage of municipalities that incorporate climate clauses in the processes of purchase or public procurement or campaigns and training actions on energy.
On the other hand, it can be seen that the municipalities at risk of depopulation have so far shown greater activity in relation to the constitution of Local Energy Communities (CEL): just over 28% already have or have knowledge that in their municipal terms a percentage is being constituted, a percentage that only reaches 25% in the whole of the Valencian Community.
Solar panel on a roof
The Minister Mireia Mollà has observed that the smaller municipalities, although "they have a lot of will to make facilities and actions for the energy transition", suffer "a lack of investments and advice".
To solve it, he recalled that the Valencian Office of Energy Transition and Accompaniment (OTEACV) is underway, a mobile unit that travels through towns and cities to train the neighborhood and the municipalities.
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